Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 8

Tuesday, July 16

Good bye to the nice KOA

 

To Lackawanna State Park, Pennsylvania
Horrid day that started with me not being able to find my necklace. Possibly I dropped it in the bathhouse; I'll ask during our return trip to the KOA in about a week.

Traffic sucked, and while we were stuck in horrible awful traffic jams I pulled up the route and google told me it was blocked by road closures. Panicking, I called the park and asked the guy who answered how to get there.  His instructions seemed to make sense, but when I hung up on him and started trying to check the new route for low clearances, I got into a horrible mess switching back and forth from one map to the other while the motorhome was moving on a bumpy, curvy road.  

I finally vetted one of google's "proposed alternate" routes, and we set off down that. Shortly afterward, I discovered the route that the park guy was trying to send me on and it was much shorter and faster. But no help from that--we were already in downtown Scranton and had to keep with the google navigation to get out of there.

By the time we arrived, we were tired and couldn't find the water fill station that was supposed to be at the entrance. (Turned out it was way off to the side, unmarked from the road, and nearly invisible.) If you stared straight at it with binoculars, you could have seen the blue "water cup" sign--but we didn't and we couldn't.  So we went on to the camping loop and found another.  Problem is, the water pressure there was so low that we spent at least 40 minutes there and ended up with maybe 10 gallons of water.

Meanwhile we found out that electricity was off at the campsites. The park host told us it was okay to run our generator, so that's what we did. We're supposed to get gas tomorrow and that should fill the bill.

With all the aggravation, it was still a very pretty little campground. There were lots of groundhogs!  I saw a big one on my walk with Molly, but luckily, she never saw it.  And one rabbit.  And a waterfall off in the distance but I couldn't see the water through the trees and didn't have a trail map to find the trail to it.

And another bad luck thing--the pizza place I'd chosen for supper was closed on Tuesdays. I'd planned to go visit the Anthracite Coal Museum and take the mine tour train, but that activity got canceled--too tired and Molly needed a walk. So instead I found an equally good pizza place (which was excellent, by the way!  Make a note to go there again and maybe do the mine tour too)   We went there and brought a pizza back for dinner in our motorhome with little water, generator running, and a severely obstructed Starlink. It managed to work well enough, though.

Scenic view

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 7

Monday 15 July

Leaving Claytor Lake

 
The destination was Hagerstown/Antietam Battlefield KOA and the estimated time was 3:54, but of course it took us a lot longer. I'm not sure why, exactly. The notes say we left at 9:14;  did not take a gas stop but did take a 30-minute rest area stop; and arrived at 1:48.  So about right on target, give or take ten minutes.

But it felt hideously long,  

 

 

 

 

 

Our arrival was relatively painless and it turned out to be a lovely little KOA. Everything a body needed, including a river alongside with canoes that could be borrowed. A gorgeous bathhouse with three well-equipped stalls in the women's side, and a swimming pool. Tiny, but 6-feet deep at the deep end. And a small dog park equipped with water and some balls. We didn't do any activities except showering (me) and dog-parking (Molly).

It was miserably hot when we arrived, but it cooled down to a livable temperature by sundown.

Despite the tree coverage, which was heavy, we had excellent north-eastern exposure for the Starlink. At dinner we watched our next-to-the-last episode of Cobra Kai, and after dinner watched the last one which turned out to be extra long and ended the season by resolving almost all plot elements. I don't have a clue what they plan to do next time.

It should have been a lovely, lovely day, but it was so oddly tiring. I guess we're getting old.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 6

Sunday 14 July
Claytor Lake State Park, Virginia

 

I knew we had camped at this park just last year, in May, but when we arrived I had no memory of the campground at all.  When Molly and I went walking about, I found out why--we were in campground "A" or "B" before, but now were in loop "D". And furthermore, on the very edge of "D" in site #1.

The other campground was crowded and had lines of RVs in a field, much like an RV park. But this one was more state park-ish, with a road circling through and camp sites nestled back into the trees on the outside of the loop.

Trees, trees. So many beautiful trees. We could barely get a Starlink satellite signal at all, and in the end our speed was at best 29 MBPS but mostly less. When we tried to watch a show, it dropped off four or five times in a 37-minute episode.

But it was usable, although we were close enough to town that the hostspot on my AT&T phone would have worked as well.

What jogged my memory at first was when Molly and I went for a jog. I promised her a one-hour jog, so we started off down the paved trail by our campsite. It only went a little ways before splitting into smooth, well marked trails through the pine forest. We went on down to the lake and checked out the swimming area--tons and tons of people (It was a Sunday afternoon, after all), but nice. Very nice. And we went along the lakeshore trail for a ways until the tail we'd planned to take split off to the right, so we went along that. Soon it split and one of the options was the Claytor Lake trail which went up to a "Lake Overlook".  I remembered that. 

So that's the way we headed. The trail became more challenging with roots cutting across to trip the unwary jogger, but luckily I tripped only a little and never fell down. As we climbed--not much of a climb, but a gradual ascent--we went through a field or two of berry bushes and I started thinking about bears. It wasn't the time of day for bears, and although we'd been warned that bears live in the area, none had been seen in the park lately. Or so I hoped.

But soon we were passed by a lady jogger, going slowly but much faster than me. She had music playing loud enough to hear about four yards away. I figured she'd scare off any bears that we might encounter.

 We made it up to the lake overlook, not very high but pretty. The signage said it was .9 miles. And then back to the campground. I had to make a few detours to fill up the whole one hour, but we made it. It was very hot but very shady, so we were sweaty but not suffocating.

The water heater is still broken, so Ed took a cold shower but I cheated and just showered my body under the ice water, leaving my hair. It wasn't all that greasy, anyway. Just a little sweaty.  Then we went to eat at The Mason Jar, the nearby restaurant with the rave reviews.

And it was indeed pretty good, but ridiculously expensive. $55 for two people with no appetizers, no desserts, and water for our beverage. And add a tip on top of that!  Ed had rib-eye, which was okay enough for the price, but then he substituted a salad for one of his side dishes and they upcharged us for that, I think 3 bucks. And I added sweet potato fries onto my apple-cranberry salad, which added 4.50. 

This makes twice I've spent more than I ought on this trip, and this makes the end. No more!  With the one exception of our one good meal planned for Cape Cod, I'm ordering the cheapest thing I can stand.  Even if it's an appetizer and a side dish. That's it.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 5

Saturday, July 13, still at Douglas Headwaters

For reasons unknown, my brain has gone all wobbly-doodle. I say things that make no sense and do stupid things that I never would have done in normal times. I think it's because I'm a little tired and am still adjusting to the new location (motorhome) after two months of staying at home. My brain is working overtime trying to remember everything and so it can't remember anything.

Our water heater broke, so instead of going to the birding area this morning we went to some stores to try and find a fuse for it. The fuse is an odd size and shape, and none of the three auto parts stores, nor Lowe's, nor Camping World, had it. At that point we were back at the interstate and we should have went on to the birding area, but Ed mentioned Radio Shack as an example of the kind of place that might have the fuse.

Oddly enough, there are still radio shacks in existence. We went to the nearest one, back down in Sevierville.  It wasn't all that near, but it did have the fuse. By then it was after lunchtime and we were closer to the barbeque place than to the Mammoth Motorhome, so we went on over and got the barbeque to go. And home.

Of course the fuse did not work.  At least, it did not fix the problem. Maybe the fuse had indeed blown but something else is broken.  Annoying as heck, but bearable for the rest of the trip if we have to.

The Smoky Mountains in the distance, from town

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 4

Friday, July 12

Still in Tennessee, from Montgomery Bell State Park to Douglas Headwaters TVA Campground.

It was supposed to be a long drive day (3:40 or so), an it turned out to be VERY long and very painful. Getting to the interstate was easy, but there were innumerable slowdowns before Nashville and rough driving. We planned to stop at a rest area on the east side of Nashville, but it was the tiniest rest area we ever saw and the truck parking was completely full. We pulled off and had to pull right back on again.

A little further down the road there was a truck parking area created where a weigh station had been closed.  It sucked but served the purpose just fine for a quick dog walk, sprite and cigarette stop.  I ate my own lunch on the road.

Driving through Nashville on I-40 is always a pain, because in order to stay on the road you have to go left, then right, then left, then right...or is that right, then left? You'd think that you could go through a city on a major Interstate Highway without changing lanes repeatedly, but not this city. Nowadays, they've mostly improved driving through big cities by marking the lanes with paint on the ground telling which ones were which roads, but that wasn't enough to fix this mess.

We got through without incident but then there was more traffic and hills, lots of hills.  Hills slow us down,  a lot. And then--oh, stupid of stupid--I let google take us on one of its stupid shortcuts through a neighborhood when the main road, the one suitable for RVs, only went a mile further around. that was scary and sucky and I am very, very angry that I missed what it was doing.  Blah!

We made it, and the place, Douglas Headwaters Camp by the TVA, was very nice. It looked and felt almost exactly like a Corp. Of Engineers camp except no big chunky wooden covered picnic tables.  The spacing of campsites was good but could have been better. They were very flat and open, and we had a decent view of the lake even though I didn't choose one of the lakeside sites. I think they were all booked up. 

No view from our campsite, but at the boat ramp you could see the Smoky Mountains in the distance.

Across the road there was a one-mile wooded trail that Molly and I took both on Friday and on Saturday.  No birds but lots of squirrels.  About as boring as a trail could be except, of course, it was a trail. In the woods. (Which is never boring)

It was awfully hot that day. We also took a walk on the road past the "Danger do not enter!" barricade on the road, you could walk down to a nice view of the dam. So we did it, twice.

There were robins galore and a lot of the usual birds but nothing exciting. Eastern Kingbirds all over. Lots of vultures on the dam.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 3

Thursday, July 11

Written at the time:
At Montgomery Bell State Park in Tennessee, not too far from Nashville. I chose a site at the far end of the campground, next to the last site which was next to the dumpsters.  Just behind us there is a creek and just behind it, a 25' bluff.  Nothing "scenic" but nice, very nice. The creek has water but I wouldn't exactly call it burbling. It's hardly even moving.  Off to the left side of us is the main body of the campground, lots of it. But off to the right is a big, mowed field set up for baseball and with a running trail all around. Past that is a day use area and some hiking trails.

 If I'd been in the main loops of the campground, I'd have hated this place with a passion. But as it is, I kind of like it. There's people and dogs and children and all sort of crap here, but it's also got some great--and deserted!--trails. And it has otters!  And broad-winged hawks.

To explain, as Molly and I headed out for a walk, we passed a horrible intermittent squeal in the the trees by the creek. And at first, I didn't think it was even a bird. But Merlin did--Broad-winged hawk. A couple of them, bitching at each other in the trees. But I never saw them.

We had a good walk although i couldn't figure out the map at all. but finally we reached a point where a sign said "campground .3 miles"  It was nearly time to get back and help fix supper, and so that's where we went.  What it didn't say was that the trail was going to cross the creek and rejoin the campground at the tent sites at the far end--at the opposite end from our site.

Going back through the crowded campground was stressful. But I only saw one loose dog, and luckily it didn't come to greet us.

The other memorable thing about the campground was that just as darkness was falling, a family of four or five otters came slowly down the creek, playing as they went and occasionally raising up their heads to take a look at us. Lovely.

As far as a review of the campground goes, the sites are roomy but they're crammed really close together and it's a crowded mess.  In fact, our slide-out overhung the neighboring site's picnic table.  The park itself is huge and spacious. and the trails, as I say, were well marked, lovely and deserted.  Even though the park was crammed full of people, the minute we set foot on a trail and stepped away from the road, we were all alone in a primeval woods.

So, I'd definitely come back for the otters and the trails, but not on a Thursday or weekend evening during peak camping season.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 2

Wednesday, July 10

Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park

My feeling about this place are kind of mixed. Bird watching--superb. Seen or heard (mostly heard) Acadian Flycatcher, Northern Parula, Wood Thrush, Red-eyed Vireo, Pileated Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Peewee, Mississippi Kite, and who knows what all else. Merlin Bird ID heard a couple that I didn't, but I haven't listed those here.

Facilities, decent. The water spigot at the dump station wasn't threaded, so we could only dump and not clean the tank. The roads were narrow and a little crumbly at the edges, but the trees are trimmed back properly so we didn't scratch up Magnus' top too badly. The power was 50-amp, but it glitched twice during the evening.  The first time, around 4pm, it stayed off about fifteen minutes; the second time at 6-ish only five or so. But it was disturbing, not knowing if the power was going to shut off at any minute.

The guy at the gate was really nice but he didn't give me a trails map and I forgot to ask.  Molly and I tried to walk the trail beside site 12, but we only got a little way along when I started hearing human racket--popguns or firecrackers--off to my right. When the trail seemed to bend in that direction, we went back. It turned out that most likely the noise was coming from the primitive camping area over there and the trail would have been fine.

We went back and walked on the park road to the intersection where the road went right toward the exit but left toward the 'river ramp'. We started walking that way and the road was going downhill for a long ways...the trees were getting taller and taller and the landscape wilder and the bird sounds more unusual....

But we had to turn back because Ed was fixing supper and I was expected back by six. I so very much wanted to take that road on to the Mississippi River!  According to google GPS we were less than halfway when we turned around.  Darn the luck!

But our biggest issue was lack of cell phone service, pretty much anywhere in the park. Which would be bearable, I guess, except that the starlink couldn't get a decent view of the sky. After three shifts of position, it was able to lock on well enough but still not good. Streaming was bearable, barely, but interrupted during the most exciting scenes.  I tried to use WiFi calling, but it wouldn't initialize.

So...I'd love to come back for the birds, but we need to scout out a better campsite.  And be prepared to use Wifi calling for phone calls.